Safe Harbor
by Stars of Artemis
Summary: A Winchester hug, dissected. No slash, one-shot.


There's no way to really describe what it feels like to be reunited with your brother after it seemed impossible, to feel his arms wrapped around you again when you watched him die, but if there is one way to describe it closely, it would have to be this;

Imagine that you are a sailor stranded at sea in the midst of a dark, terrible storm. The black waters seethe and rage around you, waves slapping wildly against the battered hull as though they would like nothing more than to reach up and pluck you from the side and crush you beneath the weight of thousands of pounds of cold water in the deep. The wind is wild, spinning your boat round and round, whipping stinging rain sideways up into your face and blinding your eyes, skating across your frozen cheekbones like icy blades. The gale is howling all around you, and the clouds are roiling overhead and beside and all around, sweeping across the tormented waters with a raging zeal, spinning like a gigantic cyclone, blotting out moon and stars and sky, till the entire world is nothing but darkness and screaming wind and water and cold. You are the only sailor on this small ship, alone, lost in the middle of the most awful storm on the sea. Your boat pitches up and down so terribly you can never find your footing, scrambling across the deck until all you can do is crawl and hold on to the ropes with frozen fingers as the ship rides up the crest of gigantic waves and tips precariously from side to side, each and every dip and swell feels like it could be your last- this is it, this is the end, you're going over the edge, or the boat is going to flip, or sink, and you will be lost to the cold, watery death that waits below, never to see ray of light or another soul ever again. You know that there used to be an anchor, or an oar, or a sail, or something, but everything is hanging in tatters and it doesn't matter, because this storm isn't just raging around you- it's inside of you, too. You are nothing but a guideless boat that has completely let go, a whirlwind of agony and pain and misery, completely out of control, and now you've been swept up into the tempest that is this craphole of a world, a world at war, completely lost and without a hope, scared and alone and unable to do anything to help yourself. You are lost.

And then a single ray of sunlight breaks through the darkness. That ray turns into a blinding beam, with all the subtlety of a massive comet falling to the earth, piercing the clouds with a sudden blaze of warm, golden light, bright as fire and twice as warm, falling on your frozen skin and pale, gray hands, so blindingly brilliant that not even the thickest cloud of the storm can blot it out. It burns through the thunderheads as the midday sun burns away the fog, without a thought for the storm swirling around it, focused on you and only you, and before you know what's happening the boat is still and the waters are calm, and there is beauty and there is life and there is safety. The storm in the world is still raging- but it's outside, around you, off in the distance, and you can see the roiling clouds from here but feel no sting of rain, no toss of the waves, no chill of the darkness. You're here, in this harbor, and you are safe- and best of all, your inner storm has completely gone away. You can see again, you can _breathe_, you can feel and it is _wonderful_. The misery, the pain, all of it is gone, just like that. Because there is warmth and there is love, and _you are not alone_.

That's what it feels like for Sam to be here, with Dean, in his brother's arms with his arms wrapped around his brother. He sinks into this hug, this warmth, and it's more than just the happiness that the person he has loved most in his entire life is safe and sound- it's that relief, that joy, being back in the one place in the world he has always known he truly belongs. Sam the freak, Sam the demon-child, Sam the psychic, Sam with no home growing up and no friends in school and his own inner demons that he could never accept…he never belonged anywhere. Not really. Nowhere but here. _This_ is the only place he belongs, the only place where everything is right inside of him, the only home he ever really needs, and he'll burn down anything that tries to take it from him before he lets it go again. And in that moment, everything in the world is right and everything inside of him is right, in a way it hasn't been since Dean left and in a way it will never be if Dean leaves again. It's probably not healthy, and it's definitely not normal, but Sam doesn't care.

All he cares about is that his brother is alive.

And that's all that matters.

* * *

**A/N; This was inspired by a tumblr post I saw with screenshots of all of Sam and Dean's hugs, and me imagining what that must feel like- cause we all know those brotherly hugs are what we live for :) The writing style was based somewhat loosely off of the style of C.S Lewis- I figured I would give his way of doing things a try, and I hope it worked out. Review, and tell me what you think!**


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